Natwest T20 Blast and Family Day at Durham Cricket Club

In the days pre children the man and I would happily spend a sunny day sat at Durham CC watching the T20 matches, they are short snappy one dayers and if you enjoy problem solving they are also cool for figuring out who needs what in how many remaining overs to win. Yes I'm a bit of a T20 geek! But we haven't taken the kids as it's never felt like a kids place to be. So when Durham CC asked if we would like to go along to a family day we jumped at the chance.

We arrived at the club around 1pm  and the family day had started at 12.30. We got parked fairly easily, parking is reasonably priced at less than £5. Then we were scanned into the gates by friendly stewards who searched every bag going in to ensure there were no glass bottles or alcohol or anything else unpleasant. We were offered some funny hats and cricket bat noise makers to take into the grounds.

There was a small fairground and bouncy castle alongside food and drink stalls. We don't do bouncy castles so I didn't notice what price the attractions were but the food was priced as you would expect at a large event a bit more than your average burger van but not so expensive it would put you off, gourmet burgers and hot sandwiches around £5, beer is priced at £4 but you have to buy your cup for £1 which you can have back if you hand it in at the end and sweets on sale at the candy van were £1.50 per 100g. 

We found the lovely staff from Digger Land offering free turns so we queued for that, but the mascot race was starting so we had to rush away quickly so as not to miss it. The game was quick moving and fun with lots of chance to cheer and bang our bats, we also got some foam hands from The Natwest stand as we are Natwest customers. So there was a change to point people out, hold up our score cards and even get our pictures on the big screen by tweeting #DurhamJets!

One thing that marred the afternoon was that some non family spectators were unhappy (quite obviously and vocally) with the number of kids  in the crowd, we actually moved at half time after witnessing an argument because someone was unhappy with children standing and cheering too loudly.  Now I get that it's annoying having other people's kids disturb your peace but if you are coming to family day you need different expectations.

We had a great afternoon and would definitely go back we did however miss out on some activities as we just didn't know they were there, apparently we could have tried some cricket, there was soft play and crafting, face painting and cricket coaching on offer! I'd definitely advise you be sure to arrive early enough to really walk around the whole club so you don't miss out like we did.

It would be fab to see some things work differently if Durham want to encourage more generations to attend as families and to be more family friendly..
My recommendations would be 

• It would be great if the club started publishing info to go out with tickets describing  what activities are where and any costs involved so you can plan in advance.
• Maybe a dedicated family seating area so kids can be kids and stand and cheer freely or quiet stand so that those not wishing to be around excited kids can be clear on the best area for them.
• Lost children stands and wristbands. We have been to lots of events where companies hand out one us paper bands that you can write contact details on in case kids get lost. Staff were in many different uniforms so it would be easy for a little person to be confused about who can help.
• Kids packs, I think for family fun days there could be colouring in and information sheets offered to keep kids busy and engage them in the game 

We were sent.these tickets to be guest of the club but the cost would have only been £33 for all of us